Swachhta campaign wobbles

Nikhila Pant Dhawan

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, December 6

The Swachh Bharat campaign launched by the Central Government has made the state government direct the school heads to maintain cleanliness on the school premises and even involve the students in the process.

The state government is, however, yet to turn its attention to the posts of sweepers, which have been lying vacant and the absence of any such posts in elementary schools.

Recently, the District Education Department released a list of such schools where the posts of sweepers are lying vacant.

These include 22 government high schools and at least 11 senior secondary schools.

The department plans to recruit candidates against these posts on humanitarian grounds since no fresh recruitment has been made.

District Education Officer (Secondary) Maninder Kaur confirmed that there were several such schools in the district.

“The posts of sweepers have been lying vacant in many government schools in the district for the past several years. Although no fresh recruitment has been made, the department may fill the posts in some of the schools,” she said.

The DEO added that since the schools didn’t have sweepers, they hired people at their own level to keep the institutions clean.

“The high and senior secondary schools have PTA funds, a part of which they use to hire sweepers to clean the school, especially the toilets. There are also posts of sweeper-cum-watchman, which we are trying to fill,” the DEO added.

Sweenkiran Kaur, principal of the largest government girls school in the district, located at Mall Road, said, “We have 1,850 students and one post of sweeper has been lying vacant ever since the earlier took premature retirement. We have hired two women on part-time basis for the purpose and they are paid from the PTA funds. Sometimes the staff members also contribute. In case a permanent sweeper is appointed, we will be able to save the funds,” she said.

However, it is the elementary schools, which suffer the most since neither do they have any posts for sweepers nor the funds to hire anyone for the work.

“There is no provision to employ a sweeper for government elementary schools. The schools don’t even have funds to hire someone as under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan, the students don’t pay fee for studying in elementary school,” said Karamjit Singh, who recently served as the district education officer (elementary) and is now posted as principal at Government Senior Secondary School, Chak Bakhtu.

“The elementary school authorities are left at the mercy of social activists and philanthropists to hire sweepers. In many of the cases, the staff members pay from their pocket for keeping the schools clean. It is common to see students clean their tables and chairs or the mats on which they sit in the school,” said principal of a government elementary school located in the city, on condition of anonymity.

Ironically, Deputy Commissioner Diprava Lakra had convened a meeting with the heads of schools directing them to develop a wall in the schools as the ‘Swchaagraha Wall’ and maintain record of the toilets and how often those are cleaned.

In the absence of sweepers in the schools, anyone can guess the condition of the schools premises, especially the toilets.